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Govt defends royal commission spending

Senior officials from the Attorney-General's Department seemed quite pleased that spending on the royal commission into child sex abuse came in under budget.

But when news emerged on Wednesday that the savings were channelled into another public inquiry - probing a botched home insulation scheme - it stirred high-level outcry.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the Abbott government had broken a promise by cutting funding to the royal commission.

The Australian Greens labelled the decision as "unjustifiable".

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Attorney-General George Brandis said the criticism was misleading and had the head of his department make a statement.

"There should be no suggestion that funding was taken away from the child abuse royal commission that it needed, or without its knowledge," Roger Wilkins told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Wednesday.

The department recouped $6.7 million of unspent funds it had budgeted in 2013/14 for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

There was an "underspend" of $4 million on capital fit-out works, and $2.7 million set aside for legal expenses and witness support was also not needed.

"Money that has been appropriated and would otherwise ... not have been used," Mr Wilkins said.

"It was not a case of removing funding from an existing need and leaving that need under resourced."

The $6.7 million formed the department's one-third contribution to the $20 million budget for the Royal Commission into the Home Insulation Program, shared with the departments of industry and environment.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott denied his government was short-changing royal commissions.

The inquiry into child sex abuse was shaping up to be the best funded in Australian history, with about $377 million budgeted until 2016, he said.

The home insulation royal commission is due to come in $4 million below its $20 million budget, Senator Brandis said.

That includes footing a pricey legal bill for counsel representing past politicians.

The hearing was told former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard and past Labor ministers Lindsay Tanner, Peter Garrett and Mark Arbib between them enlisted three QCs, two SCs and two junior counsel at the taxpayer's expense under the provisions of the royal commission.

"Looks like a field day for silks," Liberal senator Ian Macdonald said.